


When Penguins Fly

by Ysavvryl



Category: Once There Was a Boy - Oliver Jeffers
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 18:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15564360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Once there was a boy who had two friends.  His two friends didn't have much in common, but he felt like they could be friends with each other too.





	When Penguins Fly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DWEmma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/gifts).



> While I don't draw much, I wanted to mimic the book's style somehow. So I wrote part of this story following the book's prose style, and other parts in my own way. Hope you enjoy it!

Once there was a boy who lived with a penguin. They were good friends; the boy told the penguin stories and the penguin showed the boy how to swim better. They spent many happy days together. But the boy had another friend, an alien that he’d not seen in a long time. The alien lived very far away and the boy missed him.

One day, he got a phone call from outer space.

 

“HEY, I FOUND OUT HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU AT LONG LAST!” the voice on the other end of the line shouted.

The boy stared at the phone a moment, surprised at the volume. Nearby, the penguin looked at the phone, hearing those words too. He held the phone away a little from his ear and answered, “That’s great, but you don’t have to shout.”

“Oh, sorry,” the person said in a more normal tone. It was more familiar like that.

“Wait, you’re the guy I met on the moon, right?” the boy asked, feeling excited.

“Yeah, that’s it! I’ve been looking over your world and figured out how to connect to the phone networks. I want to come down for a visit, so when are you available?”

“Well I’ve got school, so it’ll have to be the weekend,” he said, looking at the penguin. He seemed curious.

 

It was his other friend! The alien wanted to come for a visit. Hearing that, the boy got a great idea. He could have a fun day with his two friends so they could be friends too!

 

“Oh yeah, you can hang out with me and the penguin,” the boy said happily. “We could go swim at the pool and have fun.”

“Swimming? I don’t know, isn’t water dangerous to be in?”

“No, the pools are safe,” he said, worried now. “And the penguin is a great teacher of swimming; I’ve learned a lot from him.”

“I suppose I should learn to swim, since my teachers keep telling me that I should get used to water. I was thinking that I could take you on a ride in my flying saucer, since I upgraded it recently. And hey, you could bring another friend if you wanted! But, what’s a penguin?”

“Oh,” the alien wasn’t from Earth, so he wouldn’t know the animals here. “Well, they’re flightless birds that live at the South Pole. They might not be able to fly, but they can swim and dive really well, which they use to catch fish.”

The penguin looked interested at the suggestion of catching fish.

“But my penguin friend is nervous about flying in machines. He won’t come with me on my aeroplane.”

The penguin scrunched himself up smaller, afraid of flying machines like the alien seemed to be afraid of being in water.

“My saucer is very safe now,” the alien said. “I made sure it had a new engine and everything so it won’t break down again. I wouldn’t mind helping him learn to like flying, as we can fly low until he’s comfortable with it. And I’ll agree to try out the pool if he does. Is that alright?”

“Hold on a moment,” the boy said, then put his hand over the receiver to tell the penguin about the plan. “Flying is fun, so will you try it out with a new friend?”

The penguin seemed nervous, but after a moment of thought, he nodded.

“Okay, we’ll make it fun,” the boy said, then took his hand away. “Okay, he’s willing to try it out too. We’ll see you in a few days!”

“Sure! I’ll prepare myself.”

 

There was a problem in that his friends liked different things, but the boy was hopeful that they would both have fun.

On Saturday, the alien landed in the boy’s backyard. They decided to spend the morning at the pool. The alien watched at the side at first, not sure about going in the water.

 

Thrilled that they were doing the pool first, the penguin dove right into the water. He sped underwater like a rocket, bouncing back and forth across the pool because they were the only ones there. After building up enough speed, the penguin shot out of the water and pirouetted in the air, flinging sparkling drops of water everywhere. He then turned to his side so that he made a tremendous splash in the middle of the deep end of the pool.

The alien watched with wide eyes. “Wow, amazing!” he called, clapping for him. “I didn’t know anybody could do that in water!”

The boy was in the water already, keeping to the shallow end to keep out of the way. “Yeah, he’s born to do this. I can’t swim nearly that well, but I’m getting faster.”

“It does seem fun, and this water is calm,” the alien said, looking at the water’s surface. “All right, I’ll try it.” He slipped in carefully at the shallow end where he and the boy could stand and keep their heads above water.

“Here, want a pool noodle to help you float?” the boy asked, offering one of the two he’d brought along.

“All right,” he said, taking the purple noodle and holding it under his arms like the boy was. “The water is cool, and this noodle device seems quite buoyant.”

Seeing them both in the water, the penguin swam over and popped up above the surface. He clapped his flippers together, then floated on his back to show how he moved his flippers to swim.

“I don’t have flippers,” the alien said. “Will that work with feet?”

“It’s not as fast, but it does work,” the boy said. “Try it with the noodle.”

Nodding, he let the noodle float on the water as he tried pushing himself forward. His movement was slow and cockeyed at first. But the water was cool and refreshing, still unless the penguin was making large splashes everywhere. The alien nearly slipped off his noodle once, but the penguin noticed quickly and helped him keep steady until he was safely afloat again.

 

Once the alien got into the water, he quickly found out how fun it was to swim. The three friends had a fun time at the pool, then had a picnic in a nearby park. The alien then brought them to his saucer, offering a flight around town. The penguin was nervous. But seeing that the alien had been brave enough to go into the pool, the penguin put on a brave face and boarded the saucer with them.

 

“Alrighty, here we go!” the alien said, a big grin on his face as he brought the saucer off the ground.

The penguin looked to the boy for reassurance. He smiled and patted his friend’s fin. “It’ll be fine, he’s a good pilot. And we won’t go very high unless you want to.”

“And my saucer has a smooth ride, so you’ll be comfortable here,” the alien said. “There’s a good view all around too.”

The penguin looked off to the side. It was quite a view, just over the rooftops of the houses and the tops of the trees. On the streets, the cars looked like toys. The people stopped to look up at them, sometimes waving, sometimes pointing to others who hadn’t noticed. The boy would have liked to wave back, but he wasn’t sure if they’d see him.

When they got to over the splash park, the penguin began clapping at the sight of water spouting everywhere and kids at play. “The view from above is always great, though I’ve never flown this low before,” the boy said. “I always like going high up.”

“I like flying when you’re entering a solar system,” the alien said. “Especially one I haven’t been to before. One of the stars will star growing in your view, with the crescents of planets growing and growing until you can go by them and see them fully illuminated. And there will be so many planets to explore; your system has a nine whole planets, a meteoroid field, and a whole bunch of moons! I’ve been checking out this system, and this planet seems the most interesting by far.”

The penguin clapped to that, now happy that he’d come along.

 

And even though the penguin had been scared, he found that he enjoyed the ride on the flying saucer. The alien was happy and offered to take them out to space.

 

“I could take you to see all the planets, and we could explore them closer too,” the alien said, eager for the adventure.

The penguin clapped and the boy almost smiled. But he couldn’t agree to that. “That’d be fun, but I still have to get back to school on Monday,” he said. “If it was summer vacation, then sure, that’d be fun! But that’s a few months off still.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” the alien said. “Although, we could plan to go on an adventure when your vacation comes. We might even be able to go back to my home planet if we have more time. I have to survey this system anyhow, so I can take you by interesting places that I find.”

“Sure, that’s be a fun adventure!” the boy said, now more eager than ever for summer vacation. The penguin clapped in agreement.

 

They couldn’t leave right away, but the three friends made plans to go explore space together in the future.

 

When they got back to the ground, the penguin went right over to where the boy kept his aeroplane. He pointed up to it with a fin. “Oh, you want to fly in there now?” the boy said, smiling because both of his friends had overcome their fears. “Sure, we can fit three people there too.

The penguin pointed to the aeroplane again, then up to the sky.

“Huh, you want to learn to fly yourself?” the boy asked, surprised.

“Why not?” the alien said. “It’s always good to learn how to fly.”

The boy nodded. “Okay, I’ll teach you how to fly!”

The penguin clapped his fins, happier than ever.


End file.
